Considering the political climate in the United States, there is more reason than ever before to protect yourself from those around you. Sometimes, that even means protecting yourself from the businesses that claim to be on your side. A bar in Denver, Colorado, was recently under fire for using a woman in their advertising and essentially outing her as queer without her permission.
According to the original poster, she approached the bar and told them that the advertisement would allegedly put her in danger. However, instead of doing their due diligence, the bar reportedly told her they would sue if she made any videos about the situation. Well, she did.
The above video was posted to the TikTok account @claudettedevereux, which is run by a Black woman named Claudette. According to her bio, she is the founder of a global vertical micro-shorts platform called Prometheus. In this particular video, she is also the target of a Denver bar who sued her image in their promotional advertisements.
She explains that after realizing what had happened, she walked into the store and was told by a manager there that all their social media was handled by a different team. When Claudette sent that team a cease and desist over the imagery used, they responded, telling her that they would sue her if she decided to make this a bigger deal.
After doing some research, Claudette discovered that the bar, which she herself had named in the caption of the video as Ballyhoo Table and Stage in Denver, Colorado, hasn’t even been open for very long. What’s even stranger is that the business reportedly doesn’t get many customers, which is likely why they don’t want to remove the video involving Claudette, as it is allegedly their most viewed video across their social platforms.
Denver Bar Reportedly Outs Black Woman And Doesn’t Apologize
Claudette claims that this is being done because, with her image as a black woman, the bar can try to attract other queer people of color into their primarily white space. Commenters were in pure shock at this, with many noting that the bar’s TikTok page has since been made private.
One commenter also noted that they were set to have an event at that particular bar, but reportedly cancelled it after seeing this video, saying, “I am so sorry this happened to you. We have an event there tomorrow….we are no longer going to work with them and moving our BHM even from there to a venue that is not problematic. Sending love and appreciation for your vulnerability and perseverance.“
Other commenters also noticed how the page was deleting comments from those who follow them and support Claudette, saying, “They’re blocking anyone defending you btw.” Hopefully, the video gets taken down, and Claudette is able to live her life peacefully moving forward.
